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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/28311654">The Witch, the Gladiator, and the Widowed Noblewoman</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blueinkedfrost/pseuds/Blueinkedfrost'>Blueinkedfrost</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Baldur's Gate</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Adventure, Freedom, Gen, Recovery</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-12-25</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-10 15:42:45</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>7,905</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/28311654</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blueinkedfrost/pseuds/Blueinkedfrost</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Aerie is desperate and alone in the Copper Coronet, eking out a living as a healer for Madame Nin's women. Hendak is a slave in the Copper Coronet, made to fight in the arena against his will. Nalia Roenall was forced to marry a man she despised. When they are brought together, can they fight their way through?</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>6</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Yuletide 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter 1</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/AvandraTheMarySueSlayer/gifts">AvandraTheMarySueSlayer</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Written as a treat.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Rest with this poultice tied on, Valerie. The bruise will soon fade." Aerie touched her patient on the shoulder. She felt like sobbing but knew now not to show what she felt to those she treated. It did no good, only added more pain and hurt to the world. She only wept when she was by herself.</p><p>She'd have liked to tell Valerie, <i>Stop working in this terrible place. You will only be hurt and hurt again and I'll see you with a similar injury next tenday when your next client has too much to drink or decides he enjoys hitting you.</i></p><p>Aerie herself had a thin standing in this terrible place, and couldn't afford to speak the truth. Truth was expensive in the City of Coin.</p><p>Valerie's manager - <i>owner</i>, really - slammed the small fee on Aerie's table, a clipped silver piece and two bent coppers. "Come and work on my side of things, dearie. You'd make far more coin with me." Madame Nin made the same offer to Aerie every time, and she refused it just as regularly. Her divine and arcane spellcasting abilities were just useful enough for the Copper Coronet not to force the issue. And then there were the scarred stumps on Aerie's back. A hunchback was much less valuable as a slave, even if she was an exotic elf.</p><p>Better to hire the healer for a pittance instead, keep raising the price of her room and board, and when she eventually ran up enough of a debt use that as the excuse to change her to another slave.</p><p>Aerie knelt in front of her candle to Baervan Wildwanderer. She passed a piece of pine needles through it and smelt the thick scent. It smelt of wildness and freedom, utterly unlike the cloying perfumes of the Copper Coronet that overlay many and far worse scents.</p><p>"I pray for Quayle, my dear uncle," Aerie said. "Why did the gods take him and not me? He fought Kalah so bravely, he died and I will never see him again. I pray for Valerie and Isolde and Savitri and Rhodopis, that they will heal quickly and somehow escape this horrible place. I pray for myself - there <i>must</i> be something better but I do not see it. I have never seen it since my uncle died. Why do I still have faith in you? Why should I still have faith in you? Everyone is dead. Baervan ... Baervan help me ... "</p><p>Aerie bent her head and wept. <i>Kalah bound the knife-thrower to the stable doors and had his genie throw knives at him until he was dead. Kalah made the acrobat walk over a pit of broken glass until she fell. Kalah ordered his genie to burn my uncle alive. I was frightened and I watched and I cried.</i> The city guards eventually killed Kalah, but not before most of the circus was dead. Aerie had prayed for a hero to come and save them. There was no such person.</p><p>—</p><p>Hendak didn't rest in his cell. Sometimes his masters flung a woman or a boy in there, to try and keep him quiet, but the only woman he'd ever wanted was his wife Eira.</p><p>Hendak was a gladiator of the Copper Coronet against his will. In his homeland he was a hunter, a protector of forests, riding alongside Eira between firs weighted with snow and utterly unafraid. He'd tamed gigantic beasts and felled gargantuan trees single-handedly. He had worshipped Mielikki, guardian of forests.</p><p>Then raiders came to his land. Calishite pirates. They'd emerged from the sea like drowned rats begging for shelter. Hendak, the foolish headman, let them rest in the village longhouse, gave them cured bacon and dried apples, waited until they grew strong enough to raid the village.</p><p>
  <i>They held Eira with a sword to her throat. Blood dripped from her hands from where she'd riven one through to his skull and broke another over her knee. They took hostages - old men and women and children. Hendak chose on behalf of his village. He and other men offered themselves as slaves in return for the lives of all the rest.</i>
</p><p>
  <i>They smashed and burnt every last boat in the village on their way out. The sacrifice had not mattered. Hendak saw his homeland catch fire, a towering inferno. He did not know if Eira was preserved or not - or if the long winter with no boats or buildings slew anyone living through the flames anyway.</i>
</p><p>Hendak no longer worshipped Mielikki. She had failed to protect him and his village. Instead he called cries or curses to Tempus, god of war. Tempus served him well in the arena. Hendak killed or defeated any other prisoners set against him.</p><p>Hendak did not sleep in his cell. He readied himself for battle. He paced his walls six by four. He sang the songs of his homeland. He tapped on the walls and floors, for the gladiators had their own language. <i>Endan will be paired with Daire tomorrow. The horsemeat is rotten, don't eat it. The bronze spear is rigged to collapse.</i></p><p>Olasse in the next cell sung a lament to his god Ilmater, his voice high and haunting. Hendak refused Ilmater, but the god of mercy kept the other men's hopes spun on a fragile thread. Fragile indeed.</p><p>Hendak listened to the tapping of the pipes. These stiff blows were Kore of Kamlann, a Tethyrian axeman. Popular with the crowds and let his fans come close, which won him favours. <i>New healer. Woman told me of her</i>. <i>Not a slaver. Not like them. Elf who prays to a free god.</i> Slavers chose Loviatar or Cyric or Beshaba or Shar.</p><p>This was something different, Hendak thought. Then he hated himself for having such a thought.</p><p>How long would it be before this elf was brought to heal gladiators as well as prostitutes, and how long before she accepted the chains that held all who lived here?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter 2</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>The crowd's cheers radiated like waves across the underground arena. They slammed into Hendak and washed over him like a wave against a stone cliff, leaving no impact and no effect on him behind.</p><p>Then a roar louder than the crowd came from behind the stone doors. The man Hendak was forced to fight heaved through the doors with a berserk scream. They'd had to weigh him down with chains that looked heavy enough to bind an oliphaunt.</p><p>"DYNAHEIR!"</p><p>Hendak readied his sword. The other man was a slave like himself and he felt pity rather than hatred. But it was fight or die, and Hendak refused to die without sending many slavers to meet him in the underworld first.</p><p>Two slavers prodded the man with a spear's butt while a third unlucky one applied the key to the chains. The man whirled his heavy chains around and crushed the slaver's skull. The loosened chains fell off him and the other slavers dashed for cover behind the heavy gratings, like the cowards they were. They escaped him just in time. Blood seeped from the third slaver's crushed skull and it was clear he would never rise again.</p><p>
  <i>Stranger, what you have done causes glee and rejoicing to burn within me. But it means your death today.</i>
</p><p>The man's gaze fell on Hendak. He was a northerner with pale skin and a purple tattoo on his head. Hendak knew the look in his eyes. This man was a berserker. In this state he would attack friend or foe, slaver or prisoner, civilian or child. He screamed again - the name of someone dear to him.</p><p>"BRING ME DYNAHEIR!" he cried. He raced to Hendak. He threw a shattering blow. Hendak shifted aside and let the punch chase the air. He could smell the man. It was the familiar smell of captivity: waste, old blood, and death. They must have locked this one up for months or more. Hendak had never heard of him and so he must be newly purchased.</p><p>He was a big man, even bigger than Hendak. He flung himself bodily at Hendak and skidded along the arena rushes. When he rose he held a sword discarded by another dead man. He lunged back to Hendak again.</p><p>Bizarrely, a small furry animal sat on the berserker's shoulders. It was rosy brown with white patches and big black eyes. It almost seemed to blink at Hendak.</p><p>The berserker's sword tore Hendak's shoulder open. He defended himself with his own heavy blade, keeping the reach advantage. He could not tell whether the crowd's cries were bayings for his death or hopes for his victory and could not have cared less. They were all guilty. They all watched men die for their pleasure.</p><p>Hendak drew the berserker to a slippery part of the arena, kept his own balance. Another of the man's shattering blows tore Hendak's face open. He made a deep wound in the berserker's chest. Blood clouded his vision. The arena fights were more a matter of chance than anyone realised. The smallest slip or shift of attention meant the death of many a talented fighter.</p><p>Hendak had held on for so long from sheer bloody-mindedness and the need for revenge. He struck while he still could. His sword sheared sickeningly against the berserker's bones. The berserker still tried to bring down his arm while it was hanging from a thread of tendons. He wrenched Hendak's sword arm with his other hand and Hendak lost balance. He kicked out and crushed the berserker's ankle bones in the blow. Hendak toppled him. They fought for Hendak's sword and Hendak turned it to bite deep into the beserker's chest. The man still had enough strength left in him to hit Hendak's head hard against the ground. The two men lay next to each other.</p><p>The man's eyes focused on Hendak. Blood blocked most of Hendak's vision and his sight was fuzzy. He could barely see or think himself. But in his wounded state he somehow felt that the man had returned from his berserk state.</p><p>This man was dying, or already dead.</p><p>There were words:</p><p>"Protect ... Dynaheir. A witch .... look after Boo ... "</p><p>The berserker's head fell for the last time.</p><p><i>Let he be granted vengeance after death</i>, Hendak prayed silently. His breath was short and difficult. <i>Let those who forced him here suffer the same as he. Let my sword be given strength to bite through them one day.</i></p><p>The berserker's face was bloodless and pale on the sands. Hendak himself was swiftly losing blood. The darkness embraced him.</p><p>—</p><p>The red-haired woman was bruised all over her face and arms, her hand was broken, and unlike the others she resisted being dragged to Aerie.</p><p>Her face was red with excitement. "I am Lady Nalia de'Arnise! Well, Lady Roenall now, I mean. But it was against my will! I did not wish to wed Isaea! Please, you must believe me - I've helped dozens of your kind! I do not belong here! I demand to be released!"</p><p>"You're delusional. What on earth would a noblewoman be doing down here?" Madame Nin's long nails wrapped around a small glass flask with a whirling, thick black substance in it. "Take your <i>medicine</i>, my dear."</p><p>"Wait - " Aerie began. But Madame Nin forced it down the woman's throat despite her loud protests.</p><p>"Pay no heed to the delusions of Delcia the Delicious," she ordered. "I have given her a little something to have her sleep it off. We would not want her to strike at and harm our own healer, would we not?"</p><p>Aerie reeled, confused. <i>What would Uncle Quayle have done</i>? She watched Nin force a drugged sleep on the red-haired woman. She futilely struggled but collapsed in the end. When she was breathing steadily Aerie began her work as softly as possible. She splinted the poor hand as slowly and gently as she could. In a way it was good that the woman was drugged, since she would feel no further pain.</p><p>"Baervan help you ... since I cannot."</p><p>Aerie tucked the woman into her own bed. She whispered her prayers to her candle to Baervan and brought together her old cloak and circus costume to make herself a rough roll for the night. She kept looking back at the woman. She was worried about Nin's drug, or about the injuries, or about the woman herself. She was the first who outright protested against being here at all. The others accepted their lot with despair in their eyes. Was her story true? Or was it a hallucination from all that Madame Nin and others had done to her?</p><p>Before this woman was forced to sleep, she'd seen Aerie as one of her enemies holding her captive. She was right, Aerie thought. She was complicit with all of Nin's evil ways. However, fear and indecision paralysed Aerie and held her back from doing anything - </p><p>Someone banged on Aerie's door. She jumped half out of her skin.</p><p>"Healer elf! Open up now!"</p><p>She knew that gravelly speaker. One of the Coronet's guard captains, Elusar. He was a frightening man with a strong presence, whom any guest or servant deferred to any time he spoke. Aerie opened her door with her heart in her feet.</p><p>Two guards, coming for her. She'd done nothing to harm them. Aerie raised her hands and started to stutter but they cut her off.</p><p>"Fetch your bag. Lehtinan wants you immediately."</p><p>Aerie began to ask what had happened but Elusar silenced her with a word. She gathered all she could.</p><p>The second guard grabbed her bodily when she was done and bound a filthy cloth around Aerie's eyes. He dragged her through the door and she struggled to keep her balance with her basket. They moved swiftly.</p><p>Strangely, the blindfold was reassuring. If they wanted her not to see where she was going, they were not planning to kill her.</p><p>Aerie couldn't tell where they went but it seemed they were still in the Copper Coronet. Some place that smelt of large crowds and rushes and blood. A secret passage. She'd never been here before. She felt like stone walls and ceilings were closing in on her. Vivid memories of what it was like to be in a cage rushed in on her. She wanted to escape, needed to scream - the two guards were all but carrying her now - she didn't know how far they'd gone down into an endless tunnel where there was no room for her wings - she didn't have her wings any more, they were cut off while she screamed - how she wanted to scream - </p><p>Then they ripped off the blindfold from her and spun her around. Aerie couldn't see anything at first; it was dark, too dark, like a cage five hundred miles below the earth - she felt too much fear to even scream - </p><p>"Heal him!" Elusar commanded. "He is worth more to Lehtinan than twenty of your subhuman hide. Let him die and you will never leave here."</p><p>Aerie heard the bars of a cage clang behind her. She rushed backwards to grip them, only to see the guards standing back. They were unbreakable. She fell to her knees in despair. The light of a torch suddenly filled her vision.</p><p>"Behind  you, elf!"</p><p>A groan. Blood. A big man, his face not human but a mass of blood, wounds on both his shoulder and his face, bruised and badly battered in the rest of his body. <i>Baervan!</i> Aerie said her prayer and her god's power helped her to sense the injuries. He had lost a lot of blood, too much blood. There was dirt and corruption in the wounds. Aerie flushed out the dirt with oil of thyme and a vial of clear water. She pleaded with her god and willed what the man needed: veins and tendons knitting together, bone splinters returning to their true place, red blood surging in him. She forced a potion down his throat - the last she had on hand. She bound the wounds back together and willed to root out corruption.</p><p>The man opened one eye, blue, at her.</p><p>"Squeak!"</p><p>Aerie jumped at the small creature that had somehow climbed up the man's shoulders. It was tiny, about the size of her hand, with brown and white fur and black eyes. It watched her as if it knew what she was doing.</p><p>"That was ... the familiar of the man I killed ... take him," Aerie's patient said. His eyes rolled up in his head and his chest heaved alarmingly. She rushed to stabilise him, prayers to Baervan in her mouth.</p><p>
  <i>He is worth more to Lehtinan than twenty of you.</i>
</p><p>Aerie raised her head and called to the guards. "If you want this man to live, fetch me a cauldron of boiling water and a cauldron of clean water. Cool. Flask of healer's aid - the Church of Tempus makes the best version. Bring me two pints of it." Aerie could use what she did not need for this prisoner on her other patients. She listed two or three other items she was running low on. A strange fire born of despair raged inside her. "Go now! Or ask Lehtinan if he truly wants the coin he earns."</p><p>The two burly, frightening men ran off like rabbits at her orders. Aerie slipped the small animal into a pocket in her dress, barely thinking of what she did. She prayed to Baervan and, strangely, felt a stronger power than ever before surge to her fingertips. She begged the man's body to heal itself and sent her soul into it to give her energy and will. This man was strong, she could tell. Strong like the sight of a constellation on a clear night, but with a red festering streak in him that threatened to sweep away all traces of that clear night. Many old scars striped him, whips and worse. Aerie felt them as if the blows had been given to her - as when once she was a slave too. Inside this man was a universe of pain and the need for vengeance. Tears came to her eyes for him.</p><p>He woke. His blue eyes opened and Aerie felt recognition in them - even though they had never laid eyes on each other before.</p><p>"Know you," the man whispered. "New elven healer. Worships a free god."</p><p>"Yes. I'm Aerie," Aerie replied. "I know that they force you to fight here."</p><p>She hadn't known before. But the nature of the injuries and the guards' words made it clear. And she should have known before. There were ten thousand whispered rumours about the Copper Coronet, undertones of her times with Nin and her other patients. It was more correct to say that Aerie had chosen not to know about the underground fighting ring where men died to give Lehtinan coin and pleasure. She shared the guilt of those who had done this to the man.</p><p>"What is your name?" Aerie said.</p><p>The man looked at her as if he'd not heard that question for many years. He answered her at length. "I am Hendak. Hendak, of the north. Son of Birger, husband to Eira. Once headsman of Gonalby, now destroyed by raiders and slavers. I serve Tempus. Once I served Mielikki."</p><p>"I am grateful to have met you, Hendak," Aerie said. They were free to speak until the guards returned. The small creature in her dress cheeped.</p><p>"Dynaheir ... does this name mean anything to you?" Hendak asked. Aerie shook her head, though oddly the word seemed to spark something inside her. It was a human name, a name from a distant land she knew nothing of.</p><p>"The last man I killed called it when he died," Hendak said. "He wished to protect that person. I wonder if that one is still alive themselves." A seemingly impossible quest: to trace an anonymous person from a slave's dying words, retold at second hand. Aerie understood that Hendak was the sort of man who strove to keep a promise. He whispered to her other names: names of other imprisoned men who longed for freedom, names of guards who could be trusted to accept bribes, names of wealthy clients and patrons who deserved to go down.</p><p>Then the guards returned. Hendak feigned unconsciousness, being worse than he was. Aerie packed them off again to search for fresh bedding so Hendak's wounds wouldn't become reinfected, and pretended to treat him further while they whispered their last words to each other.</p><p>Aerie packed away the supplies Hendak wouldn't use inside her skirts, for other patients. She called to the guard.</p><p>"I appreciate the extra business," she said. "P-please - " No. She couldn't afford to stutter. She stared at a fixed point beyond the guard's left ear, a technique her Uncle Quayle showed her to avoid it. "When you hire my services for this side of the operation, you must pay Madame Nin twenty percent of the commission. If you dislike that, talk to Nin about it. Make sure this man keeps clean and let me know immediately if he becomes feverish. Now do you have other patients for me, or will you escort me back to my quarters so that I may finally rest?"</p><p>Aerie was sure that the option of leaving her in a cage down here had either crossed the guards' minds already or was just about to. She crossed her fingers behind her back and hoped that her domineering tone was enough to convince them that she was Nin's valued employee and already protecting the secret of the gladiators.</p><p>Aerie walked behind Elusar's broad back and into her quarters. She blinked as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. She heard the guards clink away. In all that had happened tonight, she'd not spared a thought for her other patient while she was down there in the cage, but there was the shape of her, unmoving and wrapped up in Aerie's bed. Aerie went to her chest of supplies and started to neatly store what she'd embezzled tonight. When people suffered in front of her, she could not hoard her goods; these would help her eke out more help.</p><p>She did not see the figure in the darkness steal out from the back of her chair and grip her about the neck.</p><p>"Yield or I will burn you to death!"</p><p>The arm tightened around Aerie's neck. She couldn't breathe or scream. A lit flame came close to her face. A magic spell. She knew it was her patient holding her like this - the woman with the splinted hand - trying to strangle Aerie with the crook of her elbow because she still couldn't move her fingers.</p><p>Aerie struggled to remember her name - her real name. Not the name that Madame Nin had forced on her.</p><p>"Nalia. Let me help ... I want to help."</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter 3</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Death is the last blessing of the gods upon us. Let us pray for the widower in his time of trouble. Refreshments will be served in the adjoining rooms. Siamorphe's blessings on all of you."</p><p>The priest ambled off to look for a drink. Isaea Roenall kicked some additional dirt on his wife's family grave and headed the same way. Aerie watched at the back of the service, her head veiled. She was only the healer who'd sworn to the death of Nalia Roenall and made her signature on the quick encoffining. Nalia's death from an overdose of Nin's drug was convenient to her husband. Now Aerie watched her safely buried.</p><p>Rather, Aerie watched the wooden simulacrum that she and Nalia had enchanted together to look like a corpse be safely buried.</p><p>Isaea's wake for his wife barely pretended to be anything less than a celebration. Rewards for his loyal followers in the form of good wine and lavish food, talk of business and good cheer and the season's most popular gambling games. Lehtinan was one of the guests at his head table, with Madame Nin further down and a veiled woman by his side. Aerie hung in the back as the low-level functionary she was.</p><p>An invisible hand reached for hers. "That was my father's best wine! He laid it down for decades!" Nalia whispered angrily. "And Isaea got my obituary wrong! That wasn't my birth date, he forgot my mother's name, and he didn't mention a thing about my work for the common people!"</p><p>Not everyone was able to attend their own funeral. Nalia had insisted on using an invisibility spell to 'gather intelligence', although Aerie suspected it was more curiosity than anything else from the noble girl.</p><p>A grizzled dwarf among the mourners, wearing a vast double-headed axe on his back, grabbed the largest bottle of expensive wine for himself and glared at anyone foolish enough to challenge him. He poured it down his throat in one go. "Here's to an old comrade's daughter! And may the axe of justice rain a bloody rain upon the necks of all the bloated aristocrats here today! In her memory she would love it. The revolution is afoot!"</p><p>Several noble looking people near to the dwarf blanched. He appeared to notice, with an amused twitch below his beard as he walked away. Beside Aerie, Nalia let out a small laugh and invisibly leant on her shoulder for support. "That's old Bonchy. Classic Bonchy. He adventured with Father for many years, you know, he was a dear friend. At least I had one actual mourner at my funeral."</p><p>The other funeral attendees piled their plates with food, refilled their goblets, and chatted loudly about irrelevant things. Aerie snuck nuts from the table into the small hamster in her pocket. He squeaked a soft thanks.</p><p>The grieving widower dinged a silver spoon against a champagne glass until everyone gave him attention. "Thank you all for coming. It is just so terribly tragic that a bare few tendays ago, I rescued my late wife from a troll invasion in de'Arnise keep."</p><p>"An invasion he probably engineered!" Nalia hissed into Aerie's ears. "Those filthy creatures murdered my father and I did not avenge him."</p><p>"Then, as you know, I married her and became lord of both de'Arnise and Roenall," Isaea continued. He wasn't trying to hide the self-satisfied smirk in his voice. "Tragically, after the horrors my dear wife experienced, she became dependent upon sleeping drugs. After her overdose, I am now a widower.</p><p>"Yet as a widower, I am still a man with a wide circle of friends." The greedy glitter in the eyes of most the men and women here tonight was for coin, not for friendship. "Lehtinan. As the Copper Coronet's principal investor, our business will continue and our profit soar to greater heights."</p><p>Muffled cheers and exultations from the audience, drinking to that.</p><p>"Madame Nin - "</p><p>"To whom you make the highest contribution toward income!" someone in the crowd heckled. Nin raised her glass knowingly, looking at Isaea like a familiar client.</p><p>"I just <i>bet</i> he knew her well, the slimy rat!" Nalia interjected. "Isaea, I swear I'll get my hands over your scrawny neck and - "</p><p>"All that has now come to an end, though," Roenall protested, raising his glass once more. "Now I am a widower, I would like to formally announce my engagement to a new business partner, a woman who has captivated us all." He bowed to the heavily veiled woman by his side. Aerie couldn't make out any of her features at all. She was rather short for a human and moved quickly and gracefully, as if she moved over the earth without having to touch it. When Aerie had briefly passed by her before, she had felt a sudden cold chill without knowing the reason why.</p><p>Unlike everyone else, the veiled woman had never eaten from the buffet table nor drunk a single glass of wine tonight.</p><p>"To my fiancée Bodhi," Roenall said.</p><p>Aerie had to leave with most of the other low-level revellers. She was definitely not on the list of invited to celebrate further at the Roenall estate.</p><p>"That will just be an excuse for Isaea to get further drunk, and he's a mean and stupid drunk," Nalia hissed. "Not that when he's sober he's any better. Bodhi. Never heard of her; she's obviously not an aristocrat. Do you know her, Aerie? Is she one of Nin's whores? I mean ... of course I would not wish to demean a low class woman for engaging in work to support herself and her deprived family, sex work can be a completely consensual and empowering profession under some circumstances ... But what kind of woman gets engaged to a man at his wife's funeral?!"</p><p>Aerie had no answers for her.</p><p>"Come with me to the de'Arnise tombs," Nalia said. "I want to see my father again."</p><p>The shadows deepened over the de'Arnise mortuary. Athkatla's pomegranate-red sun sunk below the horizon in a purple haze streaked with red stains like blood. Nalia de'Arnise paid her respect to her generations of ancestors. The spell of invisibility had worn off, but from a distance she and Aerie both looked like ordinary common women swathed in plain cloaks and dresses. Nalia's palms shook as she dusted the top of her father's tombstone.</p><p>Was that something moving, behind them?</p><p>"Father, I swear on your bones I will never give up," Nalia said. "Justice for those who murdered you. Justice for every corrupt aristocrat in Athkatla. You raised me to know how to fight. It was faithful to the family traditions." Nalia's nose flared out and her square chin jutted upwards. "Enough mourning," she told Aerie. "It's time to plunder some tombs."</p><p>Nalia apparently knew an excellent lockpicking spell. She broke into some of the graves of her own ancestors and dragged out old swords, daggers, bows. These weapons were not degraded despite being below the earth for so long. Magic weapons, Aerie knew - incredibly valuable. She tried to close her eyes and nose to the mummified and broken-down corpses that were still holding them. Nalia told her it was a de'Arnise family tradition to bury its warriors with their favoured weapons out of sentiment, but their descendant had a need for them that was more than sentiment.</p><p>She handed Aerie a flail with a golden head. As a priestess, Aerie was sworn not to wield bladed weapons in a fight; this kind of weapon was permitted by Baervan.</p><p>"It's only a part of the weapon, of course, but this was once the mighty Flail of Ages," Nalia jabbered. "The other parts were hidden within our keep. I don't think the trolls or Roenall got their hands on them, but I have no idea where they are. The part you've got was made from a Fire Giant's calcified bones; it can cause a mighty blaze if you use it right. I'll take the blade Burntongue and the bow of Lady Ludmilla de'Arnise. She was a famed hunter in her day, although she was also extremely oppressive to the local peasantry." Darkness was falling upon them and Aerie thought that at least some of the other woman's talkativeness was due to fear.</p><p><i>Oh, Baervan help me ... what have </i>I<i> done?</i> The moment Isaea Roenall or one of his servants or Lehtinan or Madame Nin or one of their servants spotted what Aerie was doing, they would kill her without a thought. But Nalia was strong, taking Aerie with her into her quest, strong like Hendak. Aerie thought of her allies and straightened her spine.</p><p>"Squeak!" The sudden noise from her pocket had Aerie jump and turn. That squeak from the hamster had sounded like a warning.</p><p>"Nalia!" Aerie called out. They were not alone. A figure in black who smelt like gravecloths jumped the de'Arnise heir. She went down - blood on her back, limbs scrambling for purchase, fighting to rise - </p><p>And Aerie backed away, frightened, her hands reaching for spell-component pouches but scattering their contents on the ground before her. She was back with Kalah and watching her uncle die, a maimed elven slave who couldn't fight or help anyone - </p><p>"Baervan!" Aerie called, but her mind couldn't reach for her god in this cowardly state - </p><p>
  <i>Uncle Quayle - I love you - I remember what you tried to teach me so many times - </i>
</p><p>Aerie found a spell that didn't need materials. It was supposed to be simple and easy to cast. Like Quayle taught her, she called raw magical force into her hands. Then she flung it like a blow into the back of the attacker. The missiles sizzled and made inroads into his flesh - he hissed and turned to Aerie and his face and long incisors were nothing human - Aerie felt cold death to look at him - </p><p>The vampire snarled and leapt on Aerie. She tried to hit him with the Flail of Ages but her movements were weak. Nalia came from behind and plunged her blade deep into his back. "<i>Ignies</i>," she muttered. The sword Burntongue became incandescent. The vampire turned into a torch. Nalia watched him stumble back and forth, beating against the walls of the tomb, until he collapsed. He turned into black charred dust. Aerie shivered. Her wrist was badly bruised and she was bleeding. Nalia was scratched across the face. In Baervan's name, she must purify the wounds before it was too late - </p><p>"Thank you, Aerie. I believe you've saved my life again," Nalia said. She curled and uncurled the still stiff fingers of her right hand. "Vampires in the family tombs. A true relaxing of standards. Well. The best defence is a strong offence."</p><p>She popped open a hidden door at the bottom of one of the family tombs. "It's not the first time the Athkatla tombs have been undead-ridden. Great-Uncle Alphy Caan was a rather excellent alchemist of his day. His fireball potions are exactly what we need to get a fire going. Get out your spellbook, Aerie. Let's see how much fire damage two really determined mages can inflict on a vampire nest."</p><p>"T-this ... was it really all right?" Aerie pleaded as Nalia dragged her away. They'd slunk around the tombs and identified the section with the most likely comings and goings: the most ancient part of the Athkatla cemetery, populated by ancient Mulhorandi tombs. It wasn't normal to see signs of scratching originating from <i>inside</i> the tombs.</p><p>They lit their candle to the skies and took to their heels. Nowhere in Athkatla was safe for them. If more dark and cold figures ran around and above them, they did not perceive it. They clasped each other's hands under the eaves of the Copper Coronet.</p><p>"You're a ghost," Aerie told Nalia. "Stay dead. Follow anyone you see going through the hidden passages. There's a secret gladiatorial ring; they need customers so it's not <i>that</i> secret. Find a man called Hendak. Show him you have a spell that can shatter locks."</p>
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<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter 4</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>That night Aerie dreamed a nightmare that had her rise gasping for breath. She slept rather than go into elven reverie: partly because she was raised by gnomes and partly because she was unable to find the tranquility she needed.</p><p>It was not her usual nightmare - not Kalah and Quayle, nor the slavers and the cage. It was a cage of another kind: a stone room with the sound of the sea lapping against stone and sand far below. She dreamt of a weeping girl and a plan that had failed. Nobody lived to help the girl. Her friends had died. There was a man who cut into the girl's skull and cut again. The girl mouthed words while she wept. <i>Minsc. Dynaheir. Khalid. Jaheira. Brother ...</i></p><p>But none of these would come to her.</p><p>Aerie woke and wiped the cold sweat off her brow. The name Dynaheir had echoed both in sleep and waking. Hendak's story was a terrible one: that poor man from the arena, the hamster's companion. Aerie fed and cleaned the animal. She worried for Nalia. She treated the three women Madame Nin brought to her for the day's rounds. Isolde and Rhodopis, two she knew, and a new girl, Emily, who accepted the treatment with a glare. Nin sent the women away with one of Lehtinan's guards and stood alone with Aerie.</p><p>"Is there ... something else you want from me?" Aerie tried.</p><p>Nin slapped her across the face. Her painted nails made long inroads in Aerie's face and she shrieked. "Enough of your sanctimony, you stupid little slut," Nin hissed. "You did Lord Roenall a favour and you know his secret. Were you stupid enough to think that would <i>help</i> your cause? You were cheap and useful for a time, but that has ended."</p><p>As if on cue, Elusar entered with his sword drawn. Aerie fell to her knees.</p><p>"Please ... please don't kill me now ... I have magic - I could fight for you in the arena?"</p><p>Nin's smile licked across her face like frost spreading over a windowpane. "There is something more interesting than fighting going on in the arena now. Take her to our guests. If any take a fancy to her, let them keep her. If not, throw her away."</p><p>Aerie shouted words to a spell and fire licked from her hands. But her abilities weren't enough to stop the hilt of Elusar's blade crashing against her skull. She lost consciousness quickly.</p><p>—</p><p>This time, there were no crowds in the arena. Only rows of gladiators, guards surrounding them, and guests. Hendak saw a man he thought he'd seen in the crowd before, in Lehtinan's own box, by the side of a slight veiled woman. Other veiled and hooded figures attended them, much like an honour guard.</p><p>"Mistress ... so soon after the funeral ... " he heard someone say.</p><p>"A minor setback. Flames only penetrate so far," the veiled woman replied. "Our intruders eliminated some of the little nestlings of our <i>colleagues</i> ... but we will make more. Far more. I want the incident investigated. The de'Arnise tomb was plundered that same night; I will have all acquaintances of the family present at the funeral looked into. That most definitely includes that foul revolutionary dwarf.</p><p>"But tonight, we'll build an army."</p><p>Hendak saw noise and motion at the other side of the gathered prisoners. They added one more to the group. Long fair hair spilt out of a hooded cloak flung aside. The unconscious woman landed on the ground. She was in chains like him. He knew her: the elven healer. When she treated him and spoke with him, she gave him hope.</p><p>Now she was a captive like him. Hendak felt something die within him.</p><p>"This new business partner, Isaea ... " Lehtinan said.</p><p>"Isn't my fiancée wonderful?" the man said. "Bodhi is a splendid treasure. I would give my life for her."</p><p>Something about the words struck Hendak as strange. Was the man drunk?</p><p>"Well, I'm not minded to give her the best gladiators in the Copper Coronet," Lehtinan replied. "If your woman wants some to play with she can choose the least profitable."</p><p>"Lehtinan. My darling fiancé," the woman purred. "I'm afraid ... so terribly afraid ... that this is what is known in business as a hostile takeover."</p><p>The woman's pale hands were claws. They ripped through Lehtinan's throat faster than Hendak could see. Almost casually, she cracked open the chest of the man she had called her fiancé. She licked her fingers when they were red with his heart's blood. Her servants drew weapons. They fought and took Hendak's revenge away from him, slaying Lehtinan and the guards who dared raise a hand against them.</p><p>In the chaos, Hendak used his bound wrists to grab a weapon from a fallen guard. He called: "Fight or we die! Brothers, we'll get no better chance!"</p><p>Some followed him. Others tried to run. Hendak fought a mage with dark skin who wore the tatters of a purple robe. She turned her skin to iron and used a staff. She smelt of death. She was one of Bodhi's monsters - they were not human at all.</p><p>"The Mistress' order was for preservation. Preservation that these might be turned." She sounded like she was talking to herself while she battled Hendak. "My mistress Tanova turned me that I might provide aid and support to the aims of the Mistress. I shall not kill this man. 'Twould be against the orders of the Mistress. I do what I must - I bear thee no ill will or malice. Thou art a good fighter. I shall not kill. Minsc - Minsc, my sworn protector, do you live yet? Can thou not free me from this fate and form? I am Dynaheir of Rashemen - I was - I am Dynaheir of Tanova's spawn, a vampire childe - "</p><p>The name shocked Hendak but he fought on. It was the same as the dead man had uttered before he fell. He'd begged for this woman to be protected, but by the time of his death she had already met a fate worse than death. Hendak feinted a blow then struck to topple the vampire. Being made of iron she overbalanced and clanged against the floor.</p><p>The chains around Hendak's wrists creaked. He was suddenly able to free himself. The lock broken, he struck out at another vampire. He caught sight of the one who had shattered his chains: a woman with red hair and a grime-streaked face, in clothing that had once been good. She shouted words to spells to unlock more chains, invisibility falling from her like a garment, and Hendak's companions surged forward to fight for their lives.</p><p>Aerie rose. Around her was screaming. Her hands were free - she had been bound but it was undone now. She heard Nalia's shrill voice shouting a spell.</p><p>Then a monster was upon her. A vampire, like those she'd fought before. This one was an elf like her. Had been an elf like her. Aerie screamed.</p><p>In that scream was the first blessing she'd learnt to cast in Baervan's name, from Quayle after he caught her sobbing in the dark and gave her his faith in their god - </p><p><i>Fiat lux.</i> Let there be light.</p><p>Aerie wasn't strong enough to slay the vampire with that simple spell, but it was enough to distract the vampire. The light left a burn on her cheek. Aerie knocked her aside.</p><p>The folds of Aerie's dress clanked. She was lucky they hadn't searched her. Nalia's flail. She brought around the fire head of the Flail of Ages and left a sizzling scar on the vampire's shoulder. The flail was heavy and strong and she felt a magical strength course through her. <i>Thank you, Nalia.</i> She knew this spell. It made your movements faster and stronger. She brought the flail down over and over again. The vampire started to cast spells, but Aerie interrupted her in time. <i>It can cause a mighty blaze if you use it right</i>, Nalia had said ... </p><p>"Baervan help me!" Aerie activated the rune on the flail's handle. The vampire screamed.</p><p>Hendak knocked back one of the vampires with a sword through its chest. Two more pressed on him. The iron vampire rose up again. Then like a bird pierced by an arrow in midflight, she stopped. The iron skin around her shook and melted away. Hendak drove forward and stuck his sword through her shoulder. She whirled, turned, and used her staff to knock out the other pair of vampires. She left Hendak standing.</p><p>"Good sir. My mistress Tanova has now perished," she said. A smell of burning filled the hall. "It appears that thy comrade, the elven mage and priestess, has slain the one who turned me. I am still a vile creature of darkness, but something of mine own will has returned. While I still possess it, I shall fight on your side and destroy those I can."</p><p>She lifted her hands for a spell. Hendak caught the scent of bat guano and ducked out of the way. A glowing fireball spiralled around more of the vampires on the other side of the room. The vampire mage cast three of them in quick succession, turning the room to an inferno. Hendak struck down any of Lehtinan's surviving guards within reach.</p><p>The arena was a charred mess. Hendak bowed his head over his arms. The elven healer lived - Aerie stood stained by blood and charcoal, amid men and monsters she had defeated. Hendak saw her alive and was glad and grateful. Her ally, Nalia, stood by her side armed with a bow and a burning sword. Hendak counted the remaining monsters who were dust on the floor. The count was not nearly enough. Some of their enemies had fled, the woman called Bodhi among them. The vampire who had aided them, the one called Dynaheir of Rashemen, sat cross-legged in the corner, giving herself up voluntarily as a prisoner.</p><p>Lehtinan was dead. No matter what future battles lay ahead of them, the underground fighting in the pits of the Copper Coronet was no more.</p><p>"We are free men!" Hendak called, and his comrades answered him. Kore of Tethyr. Olasse the Ilmatari. Endan. Daire. Many of his comrades had lived through even this. The gladiators came together. They strode out of the place that had imprisoned them and into the Copper Coronet.</p>
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<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter 5</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Aerie sat around a table with comrades. Hendak, her dear friend and the master of the Copper Coronet. Lady Nalia de'Arnise, the only living heir to the de'Arnise and Roenall estates. The vampire Dynaheir of Rashemen, a spellcasting mentor searching for a way to reverse her undeath while mourning her lost friends.</p><p>"Cast the divination, Aerie. Thou shalt do it well."</p><p>Aerie said the words to the spell. A small hamster perched on her shoulder all the while, watching the scene with keen black eyes. The four friends looked into the plate of clear water that lay before them, waiting for what it would reveal. Aerie's mind travelled along the Weave. She braided threads together and sought the truth from past and present and future. Was there hope at last for them?</p><p>The vampire Bodhi. Sitting atop a grave marker by moonlight, blood on her mouth and plotting revenge. They had only slowed her, not stopped her at all. She was ready to kill.</p><p>The man with blue eyes that Aerie had seen in her dreams. He was on an island - an island of madness. Knowledge spilt from Nalia's mind from years of living in Athkatla and they knew it was the place where mages who broke the rules were sent - </p><p>The girl who waited for them. The name was in Dynaheir of Rashemen's memories. Imoen of Candlekeep. A friend they needed to find. Her brother was dead and all her friends were dead, and so it fell to them to come to her. Now they knew where she was.</p><p><i>Baervan ...</i> </p><p>Aerie reached deeper. This was something only she could do. She was equally a wizard and a priestess, and she gained strength from the many facets of all Quayle had taught her. Her twin magics merged together.</p><p>She called the image of a peaceful forest, a place of rest. It welcomed her and her companions. Behind a tree, there was the face of a raccoon god. He winked at her and his head popped away again.</p><p>Baervan Wildwander, spirit of forests ... </p><p>
  <i>You are not alone any more, my child. Your uncle Quayle would be proud of you. Go and find your destiny.</i>
</p><p>Aerie opened her eyes.</p>
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